A review by chirson
The Devil in America by Kai Ashante Wilson

4.0

When I finished this utterly unsettling, strikingly original and deeply creepy story, I started wondering whose writing it reminded me of. I couldn't put my finger on it until, scrolling down the page on Tor, I noticed a link to Wilson's appreciation of Lanagan. Of course. Wilson praises Lanagan for "that class of consolation available only from fiction that attends to life’s most painful aspects without flinching" - this is what Wilson does in this short story, so compelling and horrifying. I'm not a reader of horror (now that I'm no longer 12 and know better), but there is a very special kind of pleasure to be had from reading something that creeps you out, a pleasure known to children reading the scariest of fairy tales--or, in my case, way too much Catholic propaganda about demonic possession. So I was clearly predisposed to enjoy this.

I don't think all the elements of the story quite fit together perfectly (the metafictional fragments in particular feel a little gimmick-y), but all the same, it was fascinating and terrifying. (Recommended fiction pairing: either Lanagan or Veronica Schanoes's Burning Girls, for more on creepy deals you can't get out of easily.)